


Dahlia Parkinson is Dead

by SeaSpectre160



Category: Captain America (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Crossover, Darcy Lewis is Pansy Parkinson's sister, Darcy Lewis is a Squib, F/M, Kidnapping, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:02:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29707899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeaSpectre160/pseuds/SeaSpectre160
Summary: Dahlia Parkinson died in 1996. Darcy Lewis came into being in 1997. She’s got an awesome life, with no need to give her previous one much thought. Until someone decides to stop leaving the past in the past.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis, Jane Foster/Thor (minor), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Theodore Nott/Pansy Parkinson, Tony Stark/ Pepper Potts (minor)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 77





	1. A Confession and an Encounter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all, and welcome to my newest story, ‘Dahlia Parkinson is Dead’!
> 
> This picks up directly after [Chapter 14](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16134431/chapters/38127854) of my ficlet collection ‘Whumptober 2018: Wintershock’, so you _will_ need to read that one first in order to understand this. Only Chapter 14 (‘Torture’) is necessary, although I certainly wouldn’t be mad if you took the time to read the others 😉. I actually don’t have the epilogue written, but as I’ll only be posting every Friday and this thing is 16 chapters long (including said epilogue), I’ve got until June to get it done, anyway.
> 
> As is somewhat customary with my crossovers (although I have been neglecting that custom as of late), here is a brief summary if you are only familiar with one of the two fandoms here:
> 
> ‘Harry Potter’ is about a British boy who discovers that he is a wizard and part of a hidden global magical community. The actual events of the Harry Potter books don’t actually make as much of an impact on this fic, and the most prominent wizarding world characters in this are either OCs or minor characters from the books, mainly Pansy Parkinson and Theodore Nott (who were both in Harry’s year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry), and Marcus Flint (who was a few years ahead of him) and all of these people were most certainly _not_ his friends. Quite a bit of exposition about this world is actually featured in this chapter, so I think I’ll leave it at that, except to say that this takes place long after the grand finale (but a year or so before the epilogue).
> 
> The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU for short) is a collection of twenty-three (and counting) movies, about half a dozen TV shows, and about the same number of Netflix shows – all based off Marvel Comics characters and all set in the same continuity, and with lots more coming. Darcy Lewis is a comparatively minor (but relatively popular) comic relief character from the first two ‘Thor’ films, and is an intern/assistant to Thor’s love interest. Bucky Barnes is Captain America’s best friend, who was captured, tortured, and brainwashed into becoming an assassin by their enemies, but is now free and recovering. He also has a badass robotic left arm after losing the real one in the incident that directly led to him being captured in the first place. And in my happy little world, he joined Steve’s new superhero team, the Avengers, shortly after escaping the bad guys’ control. Despite the two of them not appearing in any movies together, let alone scenes, Bucky/Darcy is a surprisingly popular ship.
> 
> Just to be clear, this fic largely ignores the events of ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’, at least regarding Queenie and Jacob (see the end notes for why). Also, for the MCU, the events of ‘Doctor Strange’ take place sometime earlier – as in maybe a year earlier. Same with ‘Thor: Ragnarok’. And a few elements of ‘Captain America: Civil War’ will take place a month or two later than in canon, while others will not happen at all. I’m kinda shifting the timeline around a bit here to suit my needs for this fic. And Darcy’s appearance in ‘WandaVision’ does not factor in, mostly because I had the majority of this written when it started.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don’t own the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Potterverse, or any characters from either of them. I do own Auror Kowalski, though.

_Saturday, May 14 th, 2016_

“Okay, someone had better start telling me what happened!”

“It’s complicated, Tony, I can’t just-”

“What happened to Bucky?!”

“I’m _fine_ , Steve!”

“I wouldn’t go that far, Babe.”

“What the hell happened to _you_ , Darce?! I couldn’t move you, until Strange did… whatever it is he did to fix you!”

“I swear, should I lay eyes on that swine again, he shall face the wrath of Mjölnir!”

“Seriously, guys, what’s going on?!”

To say that the Avengers were confused and curious about the whole affair was an understatement. Only Thor and Doctor Strange seemed to know what was going on, and the big guy was still ranting and raving about what he wanted to do to the bastard who dared to try and kidnap his Lightning Sister. Steve was currently too busy fussing over his best friend to be asking _too_ many questions, but Darcy knew better than to count on _that_ lasting forever. And now that Darcy thought about it, Natasha also seemed to know something, maybe, but with her it was really hard to tell. Either way, at least _she_ wasn’t bombarding Darcy, Bucky, and Strange with a bunch of questions.

Finally, Darcy had had enough. “QUIET!”

The room fell silent at her holler.

“Thank you. Now, I would _love_ to tell you everything that happened today, but unfortunately, that involves telling a lot of secrets that aren’t just mine to tell, and could get me in _huge_ trouble. So no, I cannot tell you the full story until I’ve sorted out which parts I need to keep my mouth shut about. ‘Kay?”

It was _not_ ‘‘kay’, of course. Most of the team was still visibly unhappy about it all.

Tony whirled around and pointed to Doctor Strange. “Well, I get the feeling that _you_ , whoever the hell you are – and we are gonna have _talk_ , Point Break, about letting strangers into _my_ Tower – you know a thing or two about this. _You_ spill.”

Stephen shook his head and crossed his arms. “I’m not exactly in the same situation as Miss Lewis, but I could still be facing consequences if I tell you those secrets.” Yeah, he’d mentioned on the way to rescue Bucky that his type of wizards had sort of an agreement with the Wizarding World, and that blabbing their secret could cause major issues between the two types of magic users. Like, civil war major. And Darcy would vastly prefer to avoid _ANY_ kind of civil war, thank you very much.

“What about you, Barnes?”

Bucky shrugged weakly. His hands were still shaking from the _fourteen_ Cruciatus Curses he’d suffered, and Steve had made him lie down on the nearest couch the _second_ he’d gotten a good look at his best friend. “I’m not sure how to explain what happened, and Darcy and Strange were talking about people who might want to wipe the whole thing from my memory to keep me quiet.” His voice shook at that last part, and Steve paled and cursed under his breath. “And I’ve had more than enough of _that_ shit to last _multiple_ lifetimes, thanks. I’m not risking it.”

It was then that Thor spoke up. “Then I shall be the one to explain. Asgard’s agreement with that man’s people is contingent on those under Asgard’s protection not being harmed by them. Darcy is under my protection, and this attack on her shall not go ignored.”

Darcy sighed. “ _Please_ tell me you’re not going to go find the M.A.C.U.S.A. headquarters and take your anger out on them.” And yep, she was pretty sure Natasha blinked when she said ‘M.A.C.U.S.A.’, but that was all the super-spy let on.

“Of course not. From what I understand, that scoundrel was breaking many of their society’s laws with his actions. So long as they do their duty and follow what you call ‘due process’, I have no quarrel with them.”

“With _who_?!” Rhodey blurted, clearly getting frustrated.

“With the leaders of the magical society that hides within your nation,” Thor said gravely, “Each country has one, though they have very little connection to those like the Doctor Strange. They have many a law against telling non-magical people of their existence, with grave consequences for betraying the secret, which is why the Lady Darcy could not be the one to tell you.”

Pepper cocked her head, frowning curiously. “Then how does she know about this… secret society?”

“Because I was born into it.” Darcy sighed, and slumped down on the floor so that she was sitting with her head resting on her boyfriend’s shoulder. “One of the main differences between Strange’s type of magic and theirs is that technically anyone can learn his, so long as they’re actually willing to put in the hard work and focus required, but these people have their magic from birth. It’s something that’s typically passed from parent to child, but sometimes there are kids born with magic who have non-magical parents, and then there are people like me. Both sides of my family – my birth family, I mean – all have magic, stretching back multiple generations. And I don’t have a single drop of that power within me. And in some families, like mine, having a ‘Squib’ is worse than producing a child with some sort of horrible, disfiguring birth defect. My own father kicked me out of the house when I was seven, and officially disowned me on my seventeenth birthday.”

She had to pause, as there was a loud outcry of disgust from the listening crowd.

“Don’t worry, it got better! I was taken in by an awesome non-magical couple – my Dad’s like me, with magic parents but no powers of his own – and I lived happily ever after. Until recently, anyway.” She scrubbed her face with the heels of her palms. “My birth father is _obsessed_ with continuing the family line, and while my older sister Pansy has been married for ten years, she and her _charming_ husband have never managed to conceive. So that leaves me. If I were to have children with a ‘pure’ wizard, then those kids would be acceptable in his eyes, but _only_ them. He’s been sending me letters lately, demanding that I come back ‘home’ and marry this guy he’s already arranged for me, because babies born out of wedlock are a big no-no for him, too.”

Natasha snorted in disgust. “Does he not realize that this is the twenty-first century?”

Darcy huffed out a humourless laugh. “Him and the rest of the Wizarding World. Or at least the Brits. Their society is like the Victorian Era, especially the ‘pure-bloods’ – and yes, that _is_ what they call themselves, like having any non-magical ancestry makes your blood ‘dirty’. Women considered are the possessions of their fathers and later their husbands, and spouses are still picked out by the heads of the family. Now, from what I know, that society _has_ been moving away from all that crap in the past half-century or so, and most of the laws that enforce it have been abolished, but there are some families here and there that cling to the old ways, and my birth family, the House of Parkinson, is one of them.”

Bucky, who’d started scowling the minute she’d mentioned her father kicking her out, sat up despite Steve’s protests. “That’s why that asshole came after you today?!”

“Yeah. He was hired by my birth father, Dederick Parkinson, to come and ‘retrieve’ me in person. Bucky and I were having lunch with Jane and Thor, when Bucky spotted him watching us. We left the café and split up, and the asshat followed me and Bucky. We ducked into an alley to try and lose him, but he attacked us there, and that was when I hit my panic button.”

“But what did he _do_ to you?!” Jane demanded, “When I got there, you were stiff as a board, and you couldn’t move!”

“That was a spell he used to immobilize me. He was going to Apparate – that’s a kind of teleportation that they use – and take me somewhere else, but Bucky got in the way and got teleported with him instead.”

“These wizards and witches have been known to Asgard for millennia,” Thor continued, “I recognised the spellwork and called the only reliable sorcerer I knew, Doctor Stephen Strange.”

Then it was Strange’s turn. “I was able to free Miss Lewis from the spell and use a spell of my own to track down her attacker. We found him using an illegal spell to… try and extract information from the Sergeant.”

“You mean he was torturing him,” Sam translated bluntly, reading between the lines. Steve paled even further, fussily insisting that Bucky lie back down.

“It was nothing worse than what HYDRA’s done to me,” Bucky insisted, “It’s already wearing off.”

Darcy reached up and grabbed his hand, feeling him squeeze back weakly. “We dropped the bastard off for the local magical law enforcement to take care of – since he used at least one illegal curse, used magic in front of non-magical people, and was trying to kidnap me – and then we came back here.”

“So, now what do we do?” Steve questioned, “I mean, about your Dad?”

“Dederick Parkinson is _not_ my Dad!” Darcy snapped, “He threw his rights to that title away when he threw _me_ away!” She rubbed her eyes again, feeling sorry for snapping at Captain America. “Sorry, Steve. It’s just been a _really_ rough day.”

“He’s right, though,” Pepper cut in, “Will the arrest of this one kidnapper be enough to convince Mister Parkinson to leave you alone? Or will he try again?”

Darcy went cold all over.

“There’s also M.A.C.U.S.A. to think about,” Natasha cut in. Then she sighed when everyone turned to look at her curiously. “S.H.I.E.L.D. had an agreement with the wizarding government here in the States. Agents would be informed on a need-to-know, case-by-case basis, and Clint and I crossed paths with a few of their Aurors – law enforcement officers – on an op, once. Thanks to that agreement, we were allowed to remember the encounter, but their S.O.P. is to erase the memories of any non-magical who learns about their existence. Strange is exempt because of his own magic, Darcy because of her circumstances of birth, and Thor because he’s Asgardian. But if M.A.C.U.S.A. finds out that Barnes also witnessed this man performing magic…”

That ratcheted up the tension in the room tenfold. “Will they want to make us forget, too?” Tony demanded, “And will Darcy and Strange get in trouble for not stopping Thor from telling us?”

“Possibly.”

Everyone turned around to see Maria Hill standing in the doorway, accompanied by a stern-looking dark-haired man in his mid-forties.

“This is Auror Kowalski from M.A.C.U.S.A. He’s here to ask a few questions about today’s events.”

More than half the people in the room stood up, ready for a fight if it came to it. “Just questions?” Rhodey asked skeptically.

Kowalski’s stern expression deepened as he took in all the wary, distrustful looks they were giving him. “I take it you have all been informed of the magical world, already?”

Thor stepped forward. “Indeed. In case you are unaware, I am Thor Odinson, Prince of Asgard. Earlier today, a known member of your community attacked two people under my protection, with the intent of abducting one of them. I should warn you that an attempt to erase the memories of these people here will not end well for you.”

“What he means to say,” Natasha said, smoothly stepping in, “Is that everyone here understands your need for secrecy. Many of us have also had ties to S.H.I.E.L.D., which, as I’m sure you know, already had an agreement with M.A.C.U.S.A.”

Kowalski didn’t look overly impressed. “I’m aware of our agreement with S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m also aware that many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were in the know about our world turned out to be working for that other organization, HYDRA, and that many prominent magical figures were also targeted in their mass assassination plot two years ago. Forgive me if that doesn’t inspire much confidence.”

Everyone winced. Yeah, _that_ would definitely give the magical government a reason to distrust anyone connected to S.H.I.E.L.D.

“That being said, we would much rather maintain a good relationship with the Asgardians. I’ll still want a statement of events, and a list of names of everyone present so I can add you to the official list of No-Maj’s in the know. My superiors will probably be in contact about that issue, later.”

His words didn’t exactly ease everyone’s worries, but it was enough for them to drop out of attack-ready mode. Kowalski took statements from Bucky, Darcy, Thor, and Strange, and convinced Bucky to let one of M.A.C.U.S.A.’s healers look him over tomorrow. “That Cruciatus Curse is hell on the body, to say the least, even after it’s been lifted, and _especially_ after receiving fourteen separate curses in a short period of time. We have some potions that should help speed the recovery process along.”

To be honest, Bucky wasn’t all that convinced. Thanks to his experience with HYDRA’s scientists, he was deeply suspicious of _any_ kind of doctor, no matter what they called themselves. That this healer had the ability to screw with his head, and potential motivation to do so, did _not_ help matters. So, it was more like Steve and Darcy agreed to have a healer look him over, so long as there were people that he trusted in the room with them at all times.

* * *

After Kowalski left, Darcy took Bucky back to her room (with a little help from Steve, as Bucky still hadn’t regained his full strength, or total control of his limbs). The fact that he needed aid just to walk down the hall was actually the biggest factor that convinced him to agree to the healer.

Lying side by side in her bed, the couple finally got to breathe after a long, stressful day. “I’m sorry this happened,” Darcy whispered, her finger idly tracing circles on his chest.

“S’not your fault,” Bucky assured her.

“I mean, ever since you got here, I know you’ve been worried about your past coming back to hurt us all. Even more so when you and I started dating.”

He blinked at her calm, matter-of-fact statement, but didn’t deny it.

“But today, it was _my_ past that came back, and it could have ended much worse than it did.”

“Darcy-”

“The curse he used on you is one of the three Unforgivable Curses. Use of any one of them on a human, even once, is enough for the caster to be sent to prison for _life_. The Parkinsons want me back so badly, they’re willing to risk that – or at least willing to _hire_ someone who’s willing to risk that. And the other two curses are just as horrible. There’s the Imperius Curse, which is like magical mind control.” She felt him shudder against her, but kept talking. “He could have commanded you to walk into Stark Tower and abduct me for him, or made you stand on the edge of a building or something as a hostage, or- Odin only knows what else he could come up with!”

Bucky swallowed, having been on the receiving end of a non-magical version of that _way_ too many times, and pulled his arm tighter around her waist. “And the third spell?”

“The Killing Curse. Instant death to anyone it hits. All brain activity and other functions immediately stop. Only one person has ever survived getting hit by it, and no one’s entirely sure how.”

“Someone survived _that_? Are you sure?”

“Yeah. My sister Pansy actually went to school with the guy. They were in the same year, and everything. He was just a baby when he got hit with that curse. And last I checked, he’s still alive. But don’t go thinking _you_ would get a pass, mister!” She buried her face in his shoulder. “I could’ve lost you today. And that’s scary enough when you’re out Avenger-ing, but when we can’t go on a damn date without Dark Magic users popping up and trying to snatch one of us away-”

He pulled her even closer, running his still-somewhat-trembling fingers through her hair. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m right here. And we’ll figure this out. I overhead Hill and Stark talking with that Kowalski guy about Rookwood. He and his superiors may not be happy about all of us learning about this magic world, but they’re even more upset about a foreigner coming in and trying to snatch Americans right off the street, and using magic somewhat openly while doing so. They’re going to get what information they can out of him, and then discuss some security arrangements. But for now, it’s probably best that we stay in the Tower, where J.A.R.V.I.S. can keep an eye on things, and where we’re literally surrounded by actual _superheroes_.”

“Strange can probably add some magical security measures to what the Tower already has,” Darcy guessed.

Bucky pressed a kiss to her temple. “Whatever’s coming next, I promise you, I’m not going to just let them take you.”

* * *

_Friday, June 10 th, 2016_

After having to spill several years’ worth of pain and rejection on her friends, Darcy had been afraid that things would change for the worse. But instead, they barely changed at all, and the few changes were for the better.

The sheer relief at no longer having to hide her backstory was the main change. Granted, it was only the first seven or eight years of her life, but the fear of accidentally slipping about her birth family had been ever-present in the back of her head.

She got one more demanding letter from Dederick, but ignored it like she did the rest. Unlike what she did with the rest, however, she handed it over to Auror Kowalski as evidence of the continued harassment, instead of shredding it.

She and Tony had also had a few fun debates on the subject of science versus magic, but after their last one ended with her throwing one of his gunky green smoothies at his head – he was _that_ frustrating – she’d shoved him (literally, one time) in the direction of Thor and/or Stephen Strange whenever he got on that topic again.

Bucky was back on his feet in very short order. The M.A.C.U.S.A.-appointed healer had been quite surprised at how quickly he’d bounced back after suffering no less than fourteen Cruciatus Curses; the typical recovery time was two to three months – even with magical assistance. He and Darcy spent long nights during his recovery just talking about her life as Dahlia Parkinson. He wouldn’t accept her apologies for not telling him sooner, insisting that she didn’t need to apologise at all.

Today was actually going to be his first day back on the job, so while he was engaged in his morning spar with Steve, which would then be followed by assisting with routine training (and some re-training) of the Tower’s security staff, Darcy went out to buy him something from this little bakery they’d discovered a few months back, which seemed to always have some sort of sweet, new creation every time she walked in. She decided on a _huge_ chocolate-icing-and-chocolate-sprinkles-topped chocolate tart with chocolate-mousse-and-chocolate-chip filling, the kind that she would _never_ be able to finish in one sitting but that Bucky could probably inhale in under five minutes. She also bought half a dozen of their mini lemon meringue pies, even though she usually preferred the blueberry pies, and rarely got more than one at once (today, she could smell some fresh ones being pulled out of the oven, and she just _had_ to have them).

She probably shouldn’t have gone alone, but the M.A.C.U.S.A. Aurors figured that, since nearly a month had gone by since this latest failure, it was possible that the Parkinsons might have gotten the message and wouldn't make another attempt.

She was balancing her load in her arms while walking back to the Tower when someone stepped into her path. Darcy swore and had to side-step like mad to avoid the person, only for them to block her way again. “Excuse me, I’m trying to-”

Her words died in her throat. She knew this person. It had been a long time; this woman was no longer the teenager who’d turned her back on her, but there was no mistaking her. Her long, brown hair was swept up into a bun, and those cold, green eyes were narrowed dangerously, looking right at Darcy.

“Hello, Dahlia. Are you trying to tell me you can’t spend five minutes of your precious time to say hello?”

Darcy swallowed. She knew, she _knew_ this wasn’t over! “Hello, Pansy. What do you want?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this story, let’s just say that Thor met Doctor Strange before the events of ‘Ragnarok’, and introduced him to at least Darcy and Jane, but not the rest of the Avengers, which is why Tony doesn’t know him.
> 
> I figured that, if S.H.I.E.L.D. (and therefore HYDRA) knew about the Wizarding World, there would be a crapton of witches and wizards on HYDRA’s Project Insight hit list, including Harry Potter himself. Hell, I wouldn’t be overly shocked if there were some witches and wizards _in_ HYDRA.
> 
> Lastly, yes, Auror Kowalski is the grandson of Jacob Kowalski and Queenie Goldstein. I honestly created him more than two years ago ( _well_ before the second film) for a ‘The Flash’/’Harry Potter’ crossover I’ve been _very, VERY slowly_ working on (sort of a twist on the ‘Julian Albert = Draco Malfoy’ trope a few authors have been using) – and honestly may never get around to actually publishing. Let’s just say that they somehow lived happily ever after.


	2. A Confrontation and a Discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue is still a work in progress, but I’m very pleased at the response I’ve gotten for this story so far. This chapter, we’re getting a few more characters, and a _significant_ complication to Darcy’s problem.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don’t own the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Potterverse, or any characters from either of them.

_ Previously on ‘Dahlia Parkinson is Dead’: _

_Her words died in her throat. She knew this person. It had been a long time; this woman was no longer the teenager who’d turned her back on her, but there was no mistaking her. Her long, brown hair was swept up into a bun, and those cold, green eyes were narrowed dangerously, looking right at Darcy._

_“Hello, Dahlia. Are you trying to tell me you can’t spend five minutes of your precious time to say hello?”_

_Darcy swallowed. She knew, she **knew** this wasn’t over! “Hello, Pansy. What do you want?”_

* * *

_Friday, June 10 th, 2016_

It was like everything in their immediate vicinity had frozen in time. People around them continued moving, going about their day as if nothing significant had changed.

For them, it hadn’t.

For Darcy, however, her whole world had been turned back upside-down just after it had finally started to right itself again after Sylvanus Rookwood’s arrest. She hadn’t seen her older sister in twenty years, but there she was, standing right before her in the middle of normal-people Manhattan. It was like seeing a stern-faced nun in the middle of a crowd of stoned, naked people at a midnight rave – two things that just did _not_ go together. It didn’t help that Pansy’s outfit was at least twenty years out of date, but to her credit, it didn’t contain any wildly mismatching colours or articles of clothing, and it was appropriate for a woman of her age, financial status, and personality in that time period.

Pansy didn’t seem overly bothered by the radical shift in her estranged sister’s world, though she did seem rather disgruntled at the fact that she was surrounded by No-Maj’s. “I want you to come home, Dahlia,” she snapped, “Or did you not figure that out from the dozen or so letters we’ve been sending you?”

“Don’t forget the kidnapping attempt,” Darcy snapped back, “And the fact that said kidnapper used an Unforgivable on my _boyfriend_! And it’s _Darcy_ , not Dahlia. Dahlia Parkinson is _dead_ , as far as I’m concerned.”

Pansy’s scowl deepened. “Well, it’s a good thing that’s not your call, then. You need to come home, _Dahlia_. Now.”

“I _was_ on my way home – my _real_ home – until you got in my way. You and Dederick pushed me out, Pansy, over something that I had no control over, and shouldn’t have been any reason to kick a _child_ to the curb, anyway! Yet somehow, you expect me to come crawling back to you on my hands and knees and beg for forgiveness when I didn’t _do_ anything wrong?!” Okay, _now_ she was getting pissed off, and if she wasn’t careful, her hands clenching on the boxes she still carried might squish her yummy pastries. “ _No_. Absolutely not. _You two_ would have to come crawling back to _me_ , and I _still_ wouldn’t forgive you! So, you have _no_ right to come here and demand that I give up everything and everyone I love for _you_!”

She pushed her way past a stunned and angry Pansy, turning around and walking backwards because she did _not_ trust her former sister not to hex her in the back, even in public.

“I told this to your hired thug, but since he’s in jail, I obviously have to tell _you_ to tell Dederick that I am _never_ marrying Marcus Flint, or any other ‘pure’ asshat he tries to pick out for me. And the two of you should just continue to stay the _hell_ out of my life!” Just then, her cell phone rang, making her jump and use her mad balancing skills to hold her boxes in one hand while fishing the device out of her pocket. “What?!”

It was Jane, who thankfully didn’t give a shit about the rude greeting. _“Darcy, where are you?”_

“I’m on my way back to the Tower now, but if I’m not there in five minutes, have Tony or FRIDAY check the security cams at…” She glanced up at the nearest street signs and rattled off the name of the intersection she’d just crossed before Pansy ambushed her. “And maybe send a rescue party, depending on what they see.”

 _“Is someone following you?!”_ Darcy could hear the deep rumble of Thor’s voice in the background, no doubt asking if there was someone whose head needed a friendly introduction to The Mighty Myeuh-Myeuh.

“Let’s just say that some old family ties refuse to stay untied. If she follows me home, though…” Darcy raised her voice. “…she’s going to find herself in a cell next to that moron Rookwood. Or worse.”

Pansy glared at her, but did not say anything or make a move for her wand. Darcy started hesitantly walking away, picking up her pace as she went and constantly checking over her shoulder and staying on the line with Jane. She wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone what they talked about; her mind was too focused on the possibility that another hired thug like Rookwood could be waiting in any alley she passed, or that she’d be hit with a spell from behind, even on the crowded street.

Bucky and Thor were coming out of the elevator just as she entered the lobby of Stark Tower, and she breathed a sigh of relief, shaking. Bucky took one look at her and opened his arms, and Darcy walked straight into them. Thor gently prised her pastry boxes and her cell phone out of her hands, and probably said something about letting Jane know that she’d made it safely to the Tower, but she couldn’t hear him. The roaring in her ears and the pounding of her heart were too loud. She clung to her boyfriend and tried to get her breathing back under control.

It wasn’t until she was finally in safe territory that it _really_ hit her how _easily_ she could have been taken right off the street. Sure, there was the Statue of Secrecy to consider, but if Dederick and Pansy had been willing to send a hired wand to kidnap her, who knew what other laws they would ignore just to get their way? She could have been gone long before Jane called, and she would have been powerless to stop it.

She did her best not to cry. “They’re never going to stop,” she gasped, “They’re not going to stop coming after me until someone stops them.”

* * *

_Thursday, June 16 th, 2016_

After Pansy approached her on the street, Darcy wasn’t allowed to go anywhere outside the Tower without an Avenger accompanying her, and an Auror shadowing her. Not that she was even willing to leave her apartment for the first few days. She was heavily shaken by both encounters, to the point that she would sometimes throw up for no apparent reason besides nerves.

It only got worse. Just two days after the incident with Pansy, the Avengers got a hot tip about a HYDRA base in the middle of Oregon. And just looking at a few surveillance photos actually triggered a few memories for Bucky, enough for him to remember that he’d been there, multiple times, as the Winter Soldier. So, it was decided that he would be going on this mission, rather than simply advising them remotely from home, as he sometimes did when his old captors were involved.

That was yesterday. Today, those remaining at Stark Tower had gotten word that there was _much_ more going on at that base than they’d originally thought, and the mission was probably going to take a lot longer than planned. It could easily last up to another month.

With so many of her most trusted protectors literally off on the other side of the country, Darcy was worrying herself to pieces. And once again, she was stressed to the point that she was on her knees in front of her toilet for the second time that day. She really shouldn’t have eaten all that lemon meringue pie, but it had just smelled _so good_ , and she supposed she was a bit of a stress-eater.

When she finally stopped puking, she sighed, wiped her mouth on a clean piece of toilet paper, and blindly reached up to the counter to pull herself to her feet. Only her hand came down on a box sitting on the corner and knocked it down onto the floor.

It was a box of tampons, and its contents were now scattered all over the floor. Darcy cursed and started to pick them up. There were only half a dozen left; she’d have to stock up before-

The world seemed to come to a screeching halt once more. She did the math in her head. Then she did it again. And a third time, for good measure, even counting on her fingers.

Frantic, she lurched out of the bathroom, not even taking the time to brush her nasty puke breath away.

* * *

Jane was busy wrestling with a particularly tricky calculation on her whiteboard when Darcy came bursting into the lab. “You’re late,” she called absentmindedly, before going right back to her work.

She wasn’t expecting her assistant to grab her by the shoulders and spin her around. “Jane, I’ve got an emergency!”

Jane blinked. Darcy had cried ‘Emergency!’ a couple times before, but she’d never physically grabbed her to make her point like that. “What’s wrong?”

“My lady time, Janey, _that’s_ what’s wrong!”

Jane sighed, trying to turn back around. “I have some tampons in the inside pocket of my purse, Darce. Feel free to take one or two if you’ve run out.”

Darcy didn’t let go. “I haven’t run out, Jane. I don’t think I’ll be running out of tampons anytime soon. Like, for the next _nine months_ or something!”

For a second, Jane thought that maybe Darcy had gone and bought a huge supply of tampons. But that didn’t make any sense, especially since she ran in declaring an emergency.

Then the penny dropped. And so did the whiteboard marker Jane had been holding.

“You’re PREGN-mmmfff!”

Darcy had slapped her hand over Jane’s mouth. “Not so loud! And I don’t know for sure yet! All I know is that my last period started on May second. I’m two and a half weeks late! But I haven’t taken any tests yet. That’s where you come in. _Please_ tell me that you, the lady boinking the Norse God of Thunder _and Fertility_ , have some!”

Jane pulled Darcy’s hands off her and gripped her wrists firmly. “Okay, first: calm down. And second: no, I don’t have any, but remember Ladies’ Night a few months ago, when Pepper said she and Tony were trying for a baby? She’s bound to have some.”

“But she’s at work right now! I can’t wait for her to come back! Between the Rookwood mess, and Pansy showing up, and now Bucky off dealing with HYDRA, I don’t think my nerves can take the waiting!” She was actually bouncing up and down in agitation, and would probably be wringing her hands if Jane wasn’t still holding them.

“Okay, okay. I’ll text her, ask for permission to grab a few tests from her bathroom. Or we can grab someone and run down to the closest drug store, or order some tests out-”

“I don’t want anyone else to know! Not until I tell Bucky! Pepper, we can tell, ‘cause I know we can trust her to keep it a secret. But nobody else, okay?! Not until I either get a negative result or get a positive one and tell Bucky.”

* * *

Pepper called back in response to Jane’s text, telling them that they had permission to go into the bathroom in her and Tony’s suite and grab a few pregnancy tests.

“I still don’t get how you didn’t notice you were late for nearly _three weeks_ ,” Jane commented as they waited in Darcy’s bathroom for the three tests to finish.

“Well, it probably happened around when Rookwood showed up, or a little bit after, so I guess I was so distracted and worried over everything, I forgot. I thought the puking thing was just from stress, until I knocked over that box of tampons getting up from my latest hurl-fest and realized I hadn’t touched it in forever. Oh, God, this could explain why I’ve been craving lemon meringue, like, twenty-four-seven! I mean, I like lemon meringue, but not _that_ much!”

“I thought you were on the Pill, though.”

“Well, it’s not one hundred percent perfect – I mean, that’s written in teeny-tiny letters on the box – and I know I ran out at one point about a week before that last Science-binge we had, which would fit the timing, I guess. remember why we were out having lunch in the first place?”

“Right…” Jane and Darcy had spent ten days working nonstop on Jane’s latest theory, finally getting the results they were looking for on Thursday. Friday had been devoted to recovering from the ten-day Science!bender, mostly showers and sleeping throughout the entire day, and on Saturday, their boys had taken them out on a double-date to celebrate. That was when Sylvanus Rookwood had made his move.

“I mean, I bought a bottle of those morning after pills when I got my refill, but that wasn’t actually the day after, so I guess that wasn’t quick enough? I don’t know how these things work!”

The first test beeped, and Darcy practically jumped out of her skin when it did so. “Oh my God,” she moaned, “I can’t look.”

So, it was Jane who stood up and looked at the three tests to see which one had a result. Picking that one up, she read the display on the screen. “It’s positive.”

Darcy let out a shaky breath. “Holy shit,” she breathed. A tear ran down her cheek.

The other two tests soon beeped in succession, and all three gave the exact same results.

Darcy Veronica Lewis was pregnant.

Which was only part of the reason why she hadn’t stopped crying yet.

“What am I gonna do, Janey? I mean, yay, I’m gonna have a baby, it’s not like I don’t want to have kids. But right now? Is this really the best time? I mean, for starters, is Bucky going to be happy about this? I don’t know!”

“You two never talked about having kids?” Jane questioned softly, passing Darcy some wadded-up toilet paper since the Kleenex box in the bathroom was currently empty.

“No. But he still has his good days and his bad days, so even if he likes the idea of being a dad, what if he decides he’s too dangerous to be around the baby, or something like that? He still gets nervous sometimes about us sleeping in the same bed, if he winds up having a nightmare and accidentally hurting me. Can you imagine how scared he’ll be for a baby?!”

“I guess you won’t know until you tell him,” Jane mused, slipping her arm around Darcy’s shaking shoulders.

“And what about this mess with my old family? The only reason Dederick’s even bothering me is because he’s hoping I can squirt out some pure-blood grandchildren for him, and only because Pansy apparently can’t do it. If he finds out about this baby, he’ll know for a fact that I _can_ get pregnant, and he’ll try even harder. And I don’t think this baby’s life will be any obstacle to him.” She put one hand over her stomach. “If he f-f-f-finds out, and he gets hi-his hands on me, he-he’ll kill my baby before dragging me to the altar with Marcus F-F-F-Flint!”

Jane hugged her properly, as Darcy was descending into full-blown hysterics. “Okay, okay, calm down. Breathe, Darcy, okay? Just try and breathe with me.”

But Darcy couldn’t breathe. She gasped and sucked air in, but it didn’t seem to be reaching her lungs. The world went blurry, and then tilted sideways.

* * *

Everything was dark, and warm, and kind of fuzzy. Darcy sighed and nuzzled into the soft fabric pressing into her cheek. She could smell the familiar scent of her boyfriend’s favourite shampoo. She reached out blindly, but her hands only met cool, empty sheets. He wasn’t there; she was just smelling traces left on his pillow.

“Darcy?”

The voice that was saying her name wasn’t Bucky’s. It was Jane’s. What was Jane doing in her bedroom? Darcy wrenched her heavy eyelids open and blinked a few times to clear her vision. Jane was hovering by the door, looking worried. “Jane? What is it?”

“You fainted. Thank God your bathroom’s right off the bedroom, otherwise I don’t think I’d have been able to carry you in here by myself. How are you feeling?”

Darcy sat up, only to lie back down when her head started spinning. “Uh, fine, I guess. I feel kinda sick.”

Jane disappeared for a couple seconds, and came right back with the trash can from Darcy’s bathroom. “Do you remember what happened?”

Darcy tried to think back. “Uh…” It was all kind of fuzzy. “We were in the bathroom, I think, and we were talking about-”

Holy shit. It all came back to her at once.

“Oh my God,” she gasped, “Oh my God!”

Jane rushed over with the trash can. “Please don’t hyperventilate again,” she begged, “You’ve already passed out on me once.”

Darcy’s mind was whirring a mile a minute. “I- Oh my God, I’m having a baby!”

“I know, and we’re gonna figure this out. No matter what Bucky’s opinion on this is – and I, for one, think he’s going to be a great dad – I’ll be right with you no matter what.”

Darcy shuddered, managing to stop herself from puking. “Thanks, Janey. I still don’t know what his reaction will be.”

Jane put her arms around her. “Well, I know he loves you. And he’s going to love your baby. I think it’s really a question of how scared he’s going to be _for_ the baby.”

* * *

Pepper agreed to keep her secret, totally understanding why she’d want to tell Bucky first before making the big announcement. She also swore FRIDAY to secrecy, something Jane and Darcy hadn’t even thought of.

“Whatever happens, you know you and the baby will always have a place here. Personally, though, I’m with Jane on this one. I’ve seen how you and Bucky are together, and he’s going to adore this baby.”

There was a bit of a hint of envy in Pepper’s tone. Darcy and Jane didn’t dare ask, but they both guessed that she and Tony weren’t having any luck on the baby front so far. Darcy privately felt it would be great if Pepper got pregnant soon; then their kids would be around the same age and could have playdates and stuff. It would probably be good for them to have each other, if there was a chance they’d be growing up among the goddamn Avengers.

Oh, God, that was another thing she hadn’t even thought of, yet. She’d been so scared about how Bucky would feel, and worried about what Dederick might do, she hadn’t yet considered how people outside the Avengers might react. Bucky may have been acquitted of the Winter Soldier’s crimes, but there were plenty of people who saw him as a dangerous monster. And, of course, there was the remnants of HYDRA, some of which were still intent on getting ‘their’ Asset back. This baby could easily become a target simply because of who its father used to be, just like Darcy herself would be if their relationship ever became public.

* * *

“Pansy told me the Squib refused again. Is that right?”

“Damn that little whore! If she weren’t the only hope for my line to survive, I’d travel over to the Colonies just to gut her myself!”

Dederick Parkinson was furious. When his uncle died childless, and his own children were both daughters instead of sons, he knew that the Parkinson Family would soon be dying out in name, but he’d always held out hope that his line and estate would continue with Pansy’s descendants, even if they didn’t bear his name. Securing a groom for Dahlia had been difficult and distasteful enough; he hadn’t expected actually getting her to the altar to be an even bigger challenge! How much resistance could a mere _Squib_ put up? And why _would_ she, when she was being offered the once in a lifetime chance to return to a social status far beyond what she deserved?

His companion was nowhere near perturbed by his rage, a trait of which Dederick had never been overly fond. He would have greatly preferred some more deference from someone in the other man’s position. “If you’re going to make a request of me, just get it over with.”

“Oh, fine. I need you to use those contacts of yours to send a… special force to retrieve her. Since Rookwood didn’t work out, we’ll need something she and her interfering protectors cannot hope to resist!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to make it clear, Dederick Parkinson is _not_ a Death Eater. He’s never mentioned as being a Death Eater in the books – as far as I’m aware, Pansy’s father is never mentioned _at all_ in the books – and the plot of this fic kinda relies on him _not_ being in Azkaban. He was sympathetic to their anti-muggle crusade, but drew the line at killing other pure-bloods, regardless of whether or not they were ‘blood traitors’, and would rather drive the muggle-born and half-bloods out via making them second-class citizens with restrictive laws.
> 
> Next week, Dederick makes his move.


	3. An Attack and a Revelation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you’re all enjoying this so far! I’m still working on the epilogue, when I’m not fuming over the stupid Ralph reveal on WandaVision, but I’m sure I’ll have it done when the time comes to post it in June.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don’t own the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Potterverse, or any characters from either of them.

_ Previously on ‘Dahlia Parkinson is Dead’: _

_His companion was nowhere near perturbed by his rage, a trait of which Dederick had never been overly fond. “If you’re going to make a request of me, just get it over with.”_

_“Oh, fine. I need you to use those contacts of yours to send a… special force to retrieve her. Since Rookwood didn’t work out, we’ll need something she and her interfering protectors cannot hope to resist!”_

* * *

_Monday, July 18 th, 2016_

Today was the day. Bucky and the rest of the Avengers had _finally_ gotten back yesterday, having taken down the HYDRA base and rescued a full dozen prisoners. He’d mostly slept for the rest of the day – Darcy had stepped out of her shower and had come face to face with her boyfriend in her bed, out like a light, his body armour and boots scattered on the floor all the way from the door. That was obviously not the best time to tell him about the baby – he might have wound up thinking it was all a dream. So, she’d just gone into the living room and read a book until he woke up (she would have liked to curl up in bed next to him, but she didn’t want to disturb the paranoid light sleeper that was her baby daddy).

Today, she convinced him they should go out for lunch – with an Auror guard, of course. He was resistant to the idea, and she assured him that they would be quick – and promised that she just had something that she wanted to tell him away from the Tower and snoopy spies and AIs. That, and her birthday had been the day after they shipped out to Oregon, so he owed her a birthday lunch.

Their Auror shadow was a fairly nondescript young man who could be mistaken for an ordinary office worker, who took a small table for one between theirs and the door of the tiny Mom and Pop style Italian restaurant. They decided it would be better to eat indoors, instead of being exposed outside. There were probably one or two more Aurors stationed outdoors, as well.

“So, what was it you wanted to tell me?”

Darcy swallowed her mouthful of lasagna, feeding the butterflies in her stomach, and tried to figure out exactly how to say ‘So, yeah, I’m having your baby.’ It had been keeping her up all night, and she had worked out a sort of script, but it had all flown out of her head the moment he asked her that question. “Uhhhhh… Wow, I thought I’d just be able to spit it out.” She chased down the lasagna with her tea (no coffee for the pregnant lady!), whimpering at the burn of the slightly-too-hot drink.

“Are you okay?” Bucky reached across the table, rubbing her back as she coughed.

“Y-yeah. Just drank it too fast.” She sipped her water, slowly, until she felt she had the coughing under control. “Ah, okay, so, you know I love you, right?”

“Right…”

“And I really like where we are right now, you know, relationship-wise.”

Now Bucky was starting to look worried. “…Okay.”

“But, the thing is… something came up while you were off in Oregon, and we’re… we’re gonna have to make a change. A _big_ change, and I’m not sure how you’re going to feel about that change.”

Bucky visibly gulped. “Darcy, are… Are you breaking us up?”

What? “No! _God_ , no! No, I do _not_ wanna break up! But…” She swallowed and shivered – the restaurant staff must have just cranked up the A/C. “The thing I have to tell you, it’s-”

She went to take another drink of water, only to flinch and remove her hand when her fingers met painfully cold glass. As she watched, the water inside turned to ice before her eyes, and the room’s temperature dropped down to something she’d thought impossible for midday in July.

“What the hell?” Bucky’s soft exclamation – along with some others – brought her attention to the rest of the room, as patrons and staff alike were shivering and looking bewildered at the sudden change in temperature. Even the front windows were rapidly becoming coated with frost.

The Auror, alarmed and with his hand over his hidden wand holster, got up and moved over to the door.

Bucky also stood, and pulled Darcy to her feet, wrapping an arm around her protectively. Multiple screams and a crashing sound came from outside. “What’s going on?!”

The Auror’s face went white as he spotted something outside. Darcy tried to move forward to see what it was, only for Bucky to pull her back and put himself between her and the door. “Dementors!” the Auror gasped, and Darcy felt her insides go even colder in fear. She’d only ever read about them in books, but what she’d read had been _terrifying_.

Distantly, she could hear explosions, and suddenly she was running through Puente Antiguo, clutching a kitten to her chest as she tried to get one of the fleeing townspeople to take it.

Another scream, much closer, snapped her out of the memory that threatened to swallow her up. Bucky was no longer holding onto her, instead gripping his head and dropping to the floor of the restaurant, screaming and sobbing.

Darcy knew Dementors forced people to relive their worst experiences, so it only made sense that Bucky – with nearly half a dozen total years off-ice as HYDRA’s unwilling assassin and two years as a Howling Commando before that – would be the first one to go down.

A white glow drew her attention back to the Auror, who had summoned a shield of white light to block the doorway. Her head cleared a bit, as if the shield had infused a little shot of warmth into her body.

But the Auror was struggling to maintain it, and soon the most horrifying thing Darcy had ever seen pushed through it, grabbing the man with one of its rotting hands. The other hand pushed the creature’s black hood back to reveal a head that looked like something that had decayed underwater. It dipped its head down, almost gently, in a sick way, and pressed its gaping maw against his mouth.

The Auror struggled in its grip, then went slack as it pulled away. A bone-chilling scream echoed throughout the room, joining Bucky’s cries, as something glowing a pale blue passed from the Auror’s mouth and into the Dementor’s.

Some of the screaming stopped, and what remained grew even higher in pitch. The Dementor dropped the Auror and flew over to her, and it was only when its hand fixed around her throat and the highest scream stopped that she realised that the sound had been coming from her.

* * *

_There’s so much blood. So, **so** much blood. It trails down the little girl’s throat, down her arm, off her fingers, and onto the floor, where it mingles with the blood of her parents. The Asset stands dispassionately over the gruesome scene, more blood dripping from its knife to join the rest._

_“Bucky?”_

_A metal fist slams into the old man’s nose, and then its fingers wrap around the throat of his screaming wife, still trapped in the passenger seat of the car._

_“Bucky?”_

_A whirring saw descends onto the stump of an arm, spattering blood onto the face mask of the man operating it. The man attached to the arm screams in agony, but nobody in the room comes to his aid._

_“Buck, wake up.”_

_A teenaged boy stares, petrified, down the barrel of the gun at the Asset, which just shot his mother in the middle of their kitchen._

_“Bucky!”_

_An elderly woman screams as a bullet pierces her son’s head from the roof of a nearby building. He took her out to lunch earlier for her birthday, and is just getting back into his car after dropping her off at her home._

“BUCKY!”

He reacted on instinct, bringing his left fist into the face hovering over his. But a strong hand caught the punch, and another one grabbed his other wrist before he could reach for his knife.

“Bucky, it’s me!”

The blurry face sharpened, and he recognised the man kneeling over him. “Steve?” His voice rasped painfully, like he’d gone a week without a single drink of water. “What happened?”

Steve let go of his hands, only to grasp his shoulder comfortingly. “There was an attack on the restaurant. Auror Kowalski said it was by some sort of dark magic monster, called a Dementor. They force people to remember their worst memories, among other things.”

Bucky exhaled shakily and leaned back on his pillow. Wait, pillow? He looked around, finding his surroundings unfamiliar but recognising a hospital facility when he saw one, even if it appeared rather outdated (even by his standards). “Where-” He coughed, wincing at the burn in his throat.

Steve grabbed a pitcher from the bedside table and poured a cup of water. Bucky struggled to sit up, noting with displeasure that the shakes that he’d gotten from his time under the torture curse last month had come back. He was still able to hold the cup Steve handed to him, though, and take a drink from it before continuing.

“Where am I?” he rasped.

“You’re at a wizarding hospital,” Steve explained, “Aurors were able to fight off the creatures, once reinforcements got there, but they lost one of their own. All the surviving civilians were taken to a regular hospital, and there are magical healers working undercover to treat them for the after-effects.”

Bucky drank again. “Survivors?”

Steve sighed heavily. “Those creatures can… Kowalski said they consume the _souls_ of their victims. The person’s heart still beats, they still breath, and all that, but there’s nothing left of… them… there. One of the Aurors and a couple people outside the restaurant were already gone by the time the cavalry got there.”

A third drink from the cup, emptying it. “How’s Darcy?” he asked.

He knew right away, from the look on Steve’s face, that something was _very_ wrong. “Buck…”

“Steve? What is it? What happened to Darcy?!”

“She wasn’t there. We scoured that entire block, but we couldn’t find her. You and a few of the other civilians were unconscious, and your Auror guard was… He was beyond saving. But we don’t know where Darcy is. We think they took her when they fled.”

It took Bucky precisely three seconds to process that news. Then he was throwing back the covers on his bed and jumping out, nearly falling over in the process. He had to find her. He couldn’t rest until he knew she was safe.

“Bucky!” Steve blocked his path to the door. “Buck, you can’t just go charging out there!”

“Get outta my way, Steve,” Bucky warned him, “I’ve got to find her.”

“I know that, but charging out of here when you can barely stand isn’t going to get you anywhere!”

Even now, he could feel his strength flagging. “I gotta do _something_ , Steve…”

“And we’re working on it already,” Steve assured him, “The traffic cameras went out when the Dementors showed up, but Tony and FRIDAY are tracking those failures and checking satellite footage, the Aurors are checking anyone who might have any sort of ability to control Dementors, and Natasha’s sounding out some old contacts from her S.H.I.E.L.D. days – ones who know about the magical world – to see if she can find a solid connection to the Parkinson Family.” As Steve spoke, he gently ushered Bucky back to his bed, and grabbed something else wrapped in foil off the table. “Here, eat this. It’s kind of odd, but apparently chocolate is the best thing to have after being near a Dementor.”

Bucky reluctantly broke off a piece of the _huge_ chunk of chocolate, and stuck it in his mouth. As he swallowed, he instantly felt some of the chill in his bones vanish, but it did absolutely nothing to ease the massive knot of worry in his gut. “Who else would have done this, Steve? It’s _got_ to be the Parkinsons.”

“I know that. But we need to find something to prove it. From what I heard, the M.A.C.U.S.A. President is _furious_ over this. Dementors aren’t native to the States, so there’s no way they just decided to come over here and attack on a whim. _Someone_ ordered this attack. But President Quahog needs some kind of evidence, before he can start accusing and investigating British citizens.” He gripped both of Bucky’s shoulders, squeezing both in a somewhat ineffective comforting gesture. “We’ll find her, Buck. I promise you, we will.”

* * *

Theodore Nott sighed and checked his watch. They were late. If he stuck around much longer, he would risk drawing undue attention to himself. He was taking a big risk as it was. Not for the first time, he cursed himself for allowing his father-in-law to convince him to do this, all for his wife’s Squib sister. But here he was, standing in an abandoned area on the edge of New York City, waiting for his hired ‘help’ to arrive with their target.

He felt the cold creeping up on him, and quickly reinforced his Occlumency shields. The three Dementors glided into view, a limp form dangling from the clutches of the one on the left.

Theodore did his best to keep his mind focused on the present as they approached him. “I trust you fed well.”

The Dementors, using their unique form of communication, confirmed that each one had managed to feast on a soul before being driven off by an unexpected number of Aurors. That, and the heat of summer, had prevented them from claiming more souls, but they were satisfied enough that their deal was considered fulfilled on both sides, as they delivered the unconscious – but still in possession of her own soul – woman to him.

She was pretty, he supposed, much like her sister, although he still wouldn’t touch that with a ten-foot pole, simply because she was a Squib. It just figured that the only groom that Dederick could find who was willing to wed this one was a Flint. The former Quidditch captain had found himself with few prospects after finally graduating Hogwarts, just barely obtaining high enough marks to not have to repeat his final year a second time and having been outperformed in Quidditch matches. The Parkinson family may not have been as wealthy as the Notts or the Malfoys, but they were certainly well-off enough that the Flint family would benefit greatly from even half the family’s fortune, which Dahlia’s children by Marcus would inherit whenever Dederick died.

Nodding to the Dementors, which would now make their own way back wherever they pleased, Theodore adjusted his grip on his sister-in-law and activated his International Portkey, the first of a series of Portkeys that would take him and Dahlia to various different relay locations before finally depositing them back in England, the better to cover their tracks.

* * *

“What do you mean, we can’t go and rescue her?!”

Maria Hill sighed, doing her best to not let it show that, for all she knew that Barnes was no longer HYDRA’s assassin, he could still instill fear in her on his bad days. Considering that today, without a doubt, had to be one of his worst days, the anger in his eyes was easily the most terrifying thing she’d ever seen from him. The desire to hide that fear was helped by the fact that, on her part, she shared his anger. “M.A.C.U.S.A.’s doing what they can to cover the Dementor attack, in a way that doesn’t expose the magical world, and we’ve reported that Darcy went missing during said attack, but if she’s already in England, the Avengers have no authorization to go on a rescue mission without our government’s approval.”

A few months ago, the UN passed an international law regarding the registration of all Enhanced Persons who wished to use their powers in a law enforcement/military/security/crime-fighting manner. This restricted the Avengers to only operating within the United States unless being given permission from the American government. And considering they had to go through Thaddeus Ross in order to get that permission, that was _far_ easier said than done.

It could have been worse. Much, _much_ worse. A friend of Darcy’s from college had been working as a senator’s aide, and had given her a heads-up on the proposed legislation. This had given the Avengers time to produce counter-arguments to various points within the original draft, and force a much fairer version of these laws – formally listed as the ‘Sokovia Accords’ – into being.

Enhanced Persons did not have to register if they just wished to go about their normal lives, and the governments could not conscript them into their militaries or agencies. Under-aged Enhanced Persons who wished to use their powers to ‘play hero’, so to speak, had to submit to the mentorship of a registered Enhanced who was of age, with permission from a parent or guardian, of course (Tony had quickly deduced the identity of the kid with spider powers swinging around Queens and gotten himself listed as the boy’s mentor). And more funds were devoted to ensuring secure transport of Enhanced Persons who’d been arrested, as the original draft had stated that a proper trial could be postponed – potentially indefinitely – if actually getting them to a courthouse posed a risk. Or, as Darcy put it, “If General Thunderpuss decides he’s going to stick ‘em in prison for life without a trial just because he wants to.”

Also, the revised form of the Accords meant that the US government could not order the Avengers to help arrest an Enhanced Person who was playing vigilante and refusing to register. If that hadn’t been changed, the Avengers would likely be spending more time arresting people who just wanted to help others than going after actual bad guys.

Either way, unless they could conclusively prove that Darcy was in England, without exposing the wizarding community, and convince the bureaucratic assholes that she was important enough to rescue, the Avengers’ hands were currently tied. And somehow, it fell to Maria to explain that to Bucky.

“I don’t like it, either,” she insisted, “In fact, I _hate_ it. But for now, we have nothing that will enable us to conduct a rescue mission outside American soil.”

“But she’s a member of the Initiative!” Steve protested, “She has access to a lot of classified information, including things that Ross would never want America’s enemies to find out. Surely we can try and convince him with that angle!”

It went without saying that Darcy Lewis was worth _much_ more than that to the Avengers, but it also went without saying that Ross wouldn’t care about that.

“On paper, Darcy’s just a lab assistant. And her relationship with Barnes won’t be enough to sway Ross, either. He won’t authorize a rescue mission for the Winter Soldier’s girlfriend.”

“What if it wasn’t just his girlfriend at risk?” Jane Foster asked. She’d been uncharacteristically quiet throughout the whole discussion, exchanging worried looks with Pepper before finally speaking up.

Maria wasn’t sure what she was getting at. “What do you mean?”

Jane addressed her next bit directly at Barnes. “She insisted on the two of you going out to lunch because she had something to tell you. Did she actually get to the point of telling you before the attack?”

Barnes shook his head. “No. Whatever it was, though, she was nervous as hell over it.”

Jane sighed. “Okay, well, she might kill me for telling you instead of letting her do it herself, but given what’s happened, it’s probably important that you know – that you _all_ know.” She took a deep breath, got an encouraging nod from Pepper, and spoke in a single exhalation. “Darcy’s pregnant.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> President Samuel G. Quahog is the name of the M.A.C.U.S.A. President during the Quidditch World Cup in 2014, according to Pottermore.
> 
> A milder version of the Sokovia Accords is in play. However, they are more fairly written and less skewed towards ‘lock up anyone with superpowers who doesn’t want to be on a government list and do whatever the hell the government wants them to’. They are toned down enough that Steve was willing to sign them, and Bucky has already been cleared of the Winter Soldier’s crimes, so he’s not getting locked up. At least not with all the Avengers _and_ Stark Industries (via Tony and Pepper) in his corner.
> 
> For my sanity’s sake, not all the events of ‘Civil War’ happen. As stated in the top note, I will be including some elements, however, and I will be moving them around to accommodate this story as I see fit.


End file.
